


stay

by softambrollins



Category: World Wrestling Entertainment
Genre: Fluff and Angst, Guilt, Holding Hands, Hospitals, Hurt/Comfort, Injury, M/M, Pre-Relationship, Sleeping Together, Worry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-19
Updated: 2017-12-19
Packaged: 2019-02-17 03:12:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,095
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13067919
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/softambrollins/pseuds/softambrollins
Summary: "I'm not — I'm notleavingyou here," he says, feeling almost affronted by the very suggestion of it."I'll be fine," Dean says, shrugging and then wincing a little like the gesture hurts his arm before cradling it closer to his chest. "The doc said I have to get a bunch of different scans. Probably gonna take a while.""I don't care," Seth says, knowing how stubborn he must sound. "I'm not going anywhere."





	stay

**Author's Note:**

> Post-RAW 18/12/2017.

Seth's torn between wanting to touch Dean with everything he has and thinking that if he does, he's going to cause some kind of irreparable damage. It's not an entirely foreign sensation, if he's being honest. But it's different this time. Dean's not fragile, he knows that better than anyone. But he's not indestructible either, no matter what he says. Seth's seen the soft, vulnerable parts of him under the rough, weathered exterior. He's seen the parts he protects. The parts that only a few people have ever seen. The parts he knew how to exploit when he _really_ wanted to hurt him.

That's the last thing he wants now. The last thing he'd ever want.

But maybe he can't help it, no matter how hard he tries. Maybe it's his curse. Maybe Dean just being around Seth, caring about Seth, _loving_ Seth, is going to lead to his doom, one way or another. 

Everything he does now is to protect Dean. But maybe there's one thing he can't ever protect him from: himself.

*

There are a lot of things going on around Seth, but it's like he can't quite register any of it.

He feels numb, almost. It's the feeling he's had since he rolled over and saw Dean writhing in pain after the collision, grabbing at his arm, and something sank deep and heavy in his stomach. 

He just keeps his hands clenched tightly together in his lap, in the ambulance, in the hospital room, and there's sound and movement and activity, doctors talking, nurses bustling in and out, phones ringing somewhere in the distance, but the only thing he cares about is _Dean._

He's in pain, but he's talking. Not a lot, but it's something at least.

It's hard not to keep playing it back in his head. The impact. Knowing immediately that something was wrong. Feeling helpless and terrified and guilt-ridden all at once. And then after: the sneak attack. Not being able to protect him, to stop them. And then the sounds of Dean's agony drowning everything else out —

Suddenly, it's quiet again, and it's just him and Dean in the room. 

"Hey, you okay?" comes Dean's voice, raspy and hushed, after a minute or two and it startles him.

"What?" he asks, blinking at him, confused.

"You okay?" he repeats.

"I'm — I —" It's a ridiculous question, and he doesn't have an answer anyway. " _You're_ the one in the hospital bed," he points out.

"Yeah," Dean agrees. "But you were just in two pretty brutal matches, and you had to deal with those slimy cowards too. If you don't remember."

Seth's honestly forgotten most of what happened tonight before Dean got hurt.

"I'm fine," Seth tells him, probably in the least convincing tone ever. He doesn't care. None of that matters.

"You look like shit, man," Dean says, almost casually. "You should probably go back to the hotel, catch some of that beauty sleep."

Seth just stares at him for a moment.

"I'm not — I'm not _leaving_ you here," he says, feeling almost affronted by the very suggestion of it.

"I'll be fine," Dean says, shrugging and then wincing a little like the gesture hurts his arm before cradling it closer to his chest. "The doc said I have to get a bunch of different scans. Probably gonna take a while."

"I don't care," Seth says, knowing how stubborn he must sound. "I'm not going anywhere."

Dean just shakes his head. "You don't have to — I mean, I'm _good_ , man. I'm all set."

Seth knows what he really wants to say, that he's not obligated to be here, that it's not his responsibility to take care of him. It doesn't change anything, though. There was always that unspoken promise between them that The Shield would have each other's backs, _always_ , and Seth made another promise to himself when they got back together, that he'd never leave Dean when he needed him, not ever again.

"I'm not leaving you alone," Seth tells him firmly, his gaze fixed on Dean. There's something in his eyes Seth hasn't seen there often, something like genuine surprise and uncertainty. Like he isn't quite sure what to do with what Seth's saying to him, giving to him.

"Okay, man," Dean concedes quietly. "Thanks."

"I mean, it's the least I could do, right?" Seth says, averting his eyes a bit, finding it hard to look at him now.

Dean gives him an almost questioning look at that, frowning slightly, but then he just nods.

"Yeah, sure."

*

Seth's nodding off in his chair when Dean gets back from his X-ray.

"God, _my_ neck hurts just looking at you."

He doesn't tell him he can leave again, though, which he's grateful for. It's something they have in common: when they make up their minds about something, there's no changing it. Maybe other people would see it as stubbornness but he can feel that Dean respects his decision, respects his right to make it. That's what makes their partnership works, Seth has figured out. Honesty. Trust. Unconditional support. 

Seth's entire body hurts, is the thing. But that's familiar, almost comforting. He'd take this kind of pain over the other kind — that strange, unnatural, _wrong_ snap in his knee — a million times over. 

"It's the not knowing that's the hardest part," Seth murmurs. 

It's all hard, though. Every second of it. Knowing that all it takes is one wrong move and it could all be gone.

"Were you alone?" Dean asks, like he knows exactly what Seth's thinking about. "That night in Dublin."

It's the first time they've been in a hospital room together for a long time. It makes some kind of strange sense that now is when they'd finally talk about it. 

"Yeah. I don't think it would've been any less scary though," he admits.

"I — I wish I could've been there," Dean says, almost like a throwaway thought, but Seth knows what it really means. 

There's no one who knows him like Dean. Even after all this time. They haven't talked about it much, the time he spent with the Authority, but Dean has to know how devastating it was for him: the threat of losing this, losing the thing that means the most to him. To both of them.

"I'm glad I'm here now," Seth tells him earnestly.

Dean just gives him the tiniest of nods in acknowledgement.

*

It's after 3am when the doctor says Dean can leave. It feels like being snapped out of a dream without any warning. It's going to be a month or two out at least, but it's a lot better than it could've been. They won't know the exact prognosis until tomorrow, when Dean flies out to Birmingham, but it feels like maybe now he can take a breath. _He's going to be okay._

"Sure you're okay to drive?" Dean asks.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Let's get out of here." Seth's had enough of hospitals for a lifetime, quite frankly.

*

"You heard from Roman?" Dean eventually asks when they're about five minutes into their drive.

They didn't get a chance to talk about it before. He'd called, right after they were blindsided, when they were getting Dean in the ambulance. Seth was still pretty out of it. He'd gotten the gist of it, though. Which was that Roman was gonna tear Joe apart the next chance he got. And then he'd told Seth to take care of Dean, and he'd promised he would.

"Yeah, he was worried, man. You should probably check in." He reaches inside his jacket pocket and hands Dean his phone that he'd taken out of his bag when they'd left the arena.

It's kind of endearing, watching Dean fumble to text with just his left hand, letting out expletives after every mistyped letter. Maybe he's delirious from lack of sleep. Maybe he's just grateful he's here, sitting next to him instead of God knows where he could be right now.

Dean pockets his phone after he reads Roman's reply and Seth's struck by another intense urge to touch him, to reach across and hold his hand, or just graze his fingers with his own — but he just breathes in deep and keeps his eyes on the road and slowly drives them back through the darkness.

*

Seth helps him unlock the door when they get to his room.

"Sure you'll be okay till the morning?" Seth asks, looking up at him.

"Yeah, I'm just gonna pass the fuck out. I think the drugs are really kicking in now."

Seth's lips quirk at that. "Okay."

Seth presses the key back into Dean's hand, and his fingers linger against his palm for a second too long. 

Before he can think about it, he takes a step forward and slowly encircles his arms around Dean's waist, presses his body as gently as he can against Dean's so he won't hurt his arm.

He feels Dean inhale and then he leans back into him, wraps his left arm around Seth's shoulders, his fingers curling into the hair at the nape of his neck.

Seth pulls away just as slowly, but he doesn't break all contact, his hand loosely wrapping around Dean's, his thumb brushing the inside of Dean's wrist.

"I'm _sorry_ —" he starts to tell him, looking him right in the eyes.

" _Stop_ ," Dean says at once, shaking his head, like he knows exactly what's been haunting Seth's thoughts for the last few hours. " _Don't_ — Don't do that. This isn't your fault. It's not on you. It's on Joe and those Eurotrash douchebags and bad luck and the universe and the business we stupid assholes chose to love. Okay?"

"You don't know what it felt like," Seth murmurs. "To see you like that. And knowing that maybe I caused even the _smallest_ part of it — and that I couldn't do anything about it — it's almost too much to bear."

"Hey, I'm gonna be _fine_. It'll take much more than that to keep me down. So you can put the sad puppy eyes away. We still have to get our titles back, remember?" he says with a cocked eyebrow.

Seth actually laughs softly at that, and nods at Dean. 

"Yeah, you're right," he acquiesces. 

"You know, if you listened to me, you'd find that I'm actually right _a lot_ of the time."

Seth just smiles a soft smile now. "I should probably let you get some sleep," he says after a few moments of silence. "It's been a hell of a night —"

"Hey, wait," Dean says, and Seth turns back to look at him, curiously. "Do you wanna — stay maybe?"

Seth narrows his eyes at him. "You sure?"

"Yeah," Dean says, his voice low, almost intimate. "I mean, if you want to —"

"Okay," Seth says, before his brain can come up with some logical reason not to.

They get their bags inside, lock the door, take their shoes off. Seth helps him out of his jacket, but thankfully he manages to slide out of his jeans unassisted, sparing them any awkwardness. 

Dean slips under the covers on the right side of the bed, and lets out a long sigh of relief. Seth doesn't know what Dean's body feels like right now, but he can imagine. He can imagine what they're both going to feel like in the morning. But they'll deal with that when they get there. 

It's still strange being this near to Dean now. They spent years practically living on top of each other, but it's been a long time, and everything's different now. They're different, even if there are times when he looks at Dean, in the ring or in the car or across a greasy diner table, and it feels like not a day has passed. Like they're both exactly where they're supposed to be.

Dean's lying on his back, eyes closed, chest steadily rising and falling. Seth just glances across at him, every so often, figuring he's probably already out.

But then he feels his hand move on the mattress, just the barest of inches, until it's right next to his own. He can feel Dean's warmth, his own fingers tingling from the proximity.

Seth stops breathing as he gradually closes the gap, until his hand's resting on top of Dean's. Then, he feels Dean's hand turn over and he laces their fingers together properly.

Seth starts breathing again and he lets his eyes fall shut, letting all the fear and exhaustion and pain of the night slip away into the blackness. 

He has everything he needs right here.


End file.
